Most folk magick requires
\ncontacting spirits, the most common being ancestor spirits. Ancestor veneration
\nis perhaps the oldest form of religion and the oldest form of magick. Why
\nancestors? Spirits that were never human have difficulty understanding what
\npeople want or need. Their perspective comes from the beings or things they
\ninhabit, or they may never have had physical form at all. A magus can never
\nassume, no matter the amount of coercion or offerings used, that a non-human
\nspirit has the magus\u2019 best interest in mind. They have their own agendas that
\ncan be totally alien. An ancestor on the other hands, has been human and
\nunderstands the needs of human beings.<\/p>\n
The second oldest form of
\nOperative Magick, and perhaps the most popular today, is to call upon a spirit
\nthat\u2019s considered to be a god or has been elevated in some way. Prayer may be
\nthe last refuge of the scoundrel, but it has the benefit of being proven to
\nwork, and most magi have been scoundrels at one time or another. <\/p>\n
In a way, prayer is
\nancestor worship. Most anthropologists agree that gods evolve from honored dead
\nwho become culture heroes and then eventually deified. But any god worth
\ncalling on already has many other devoted followers. Also, deities tend to
\nspecialize, being the god of grain, or of sex, or of writing, which can be
\nperfectly fine if what you want to accomplish fall along those lines and you
\nalready have a relationship with that god. Other gods may claim dominion over
\neverything, but will exclude certain persons from their favor, and demand total
\nobedience. In the end, any magus\u2019 connection to any given deity will be tenuous
\nat best, and any spirit that has risen to such heights has their own agenda
\nfirst and foremost.<\/p>\n
The spirits of the dead,
\nwhile they may not have the raw power of gods, are much more likely to have
\nyour interests at heart. If they want attention, they have few options, so the
\nmagus becomes their sole provider of contact to the material world, giving the
\nrelationship more equality. In the end, most people value family relationships
\nand will help a family member when asked.<\/p>\n
Ideally, a magus should
\nhave two sets of ancestors. Their own personal ancestor spirits and the spirits
\nshared by their Emergent Tribe. Personal ancestors, or the mighty dead, need
\nnot be blood relatives at all. A close friend or mentor that has died can be
\nmore amiable than a blood relative that cares little. Though a magus should not
\nfall into the trap that makes them preclude ancestors they have had
\nphilosophical issues with. Once a spirit moves past the veil, few hold on to
\nthe prejudices they had on Earth. A magus may find that a relative who was a
\ndie-hard monotheist, who would have no tolerance for their spiritual practice,
\nwill be totally understanding after death. Having your body rot away and
\nbecoming a being of pure consciousness tends to elevate your perspective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most folk magick requires contacting spirits, the most common being ancestor spirits. Ancestor veneration is perhaps the oldest form of religion and the oldest form of magick. Why ancestors? Spirits that were never human have difficulty understanding what people want or need. Their perspective comes from the beings or things they inhabit, or they may … Continue reading “Emergent Magick: Operative Magick”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,16,17,14],"class_list":["post-2322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ancestors","tag-emergent-magick","tag-emk","tag-magick"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tumblr.scrollofthoth.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}